Are our minds being hacked?
There is widespread dissatisfaction about the service sector. Complaints about bad plumbing, shoddy repairs, incompetence and rudeness of workmen are commonplace. Coaching centres and competitive exams make up the new education model. In hospitals, treatment is structured around packages. Skills are evaporating from work and courtesies, from social life. It is all about doing a job and being paid, buying and selling, zero-sum game, this is what I got, this is what I can give. In a civilization that talked about excellence in skill as a way to reach God – योग: कर्मसुकौशलम् (Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, 2.50), the fall is phenomenal.
When I look back to my childhood, I recollect the respect that people commanded for their skills. Their skills gave them a status. Teachers were guardians. Workmanship was honoured. If the right workmen were not available, work was halted, or even postponed. Even a product like curd had made a shop famous. People were connoisseurs of fine taste. Everyone who was a vendor was addressed by a relation – uncle, brother etc. depending upon his age. The fabric of society was rugged as well as crafted – every yarn was well woven and in a pattern.
Then middlemen started arriving – first in government services, then in business, in finding houses on rent, and finally in the services. Now, when you go to salon for a haircut, an employee attends to you. You don’t even ask his name. Neither is there a personal touch to his services, nor the sharing of experiences as he works. In condominiums, there is a clubhouse where you occasionally meet your neighbours – no one has time for personal exchanges because everyone is either watching TV or online. Food is more ‘ordered’ than ‘cooked’. Supply chains have become so long that you can’t see from where they start. We eat fruits coming from New Zealand and no one sheds a tear when one more guava orchard is cleared to build another suburb.
When I visited China in 2002, my host Ji Ping, who later translated Wings of Fire into Chinese, told me that Beijing is truly a great city. I asked him what makes it so and he shared with me a profound truth. He said, a city is great if these five are accessible by walking – provision store, barber shop, doctor, school and park. Beijing may have a population of 2 crores, but these five services are still available at walking distances. How many of our cities provide this ‘luxury’? UKG-LKG children riding school buses is the new order. There are no more family doctors taking care of fevers and bowel irritation. For everything, there is a specialist. Even Cardiology has multiple super-specialties within itself.
So, instead of coming together, as I was imagining in my first blog post in the new year in a good mood, we are indeed fragmenting ourselves. Joint families have long broken down into nuclear families. Now the model is – individuals living together. Because reality is biting, we are living more in the virtual – a world where there are only ‘likes’, chat rooms which are more of echo chambers, and we hear back only what we say – I am OK? You are OK! I love you! I love you too! We watch only those channels that talk about our political tastes. No one cares about the truth anyway! We go by opinion polls. If a greater number of people talk about something, it must be really good! How do I know? I am not even sure if I can think properly.
Where have we lost track? It is a very serious question which ought to be asked because if not asked and answered now, fixing it later will not be possible.
First, we degraded our poor people. The rich have coolly withdrawn from social welfare. No more charitable colleges, hospitals and hostels have been set up off late. Then crafts were gone. Our darjees our halwais are all replaced by brands. Then we degraded our teachers. This led to the degradation of what was being taught in schools. An education app has become the ubiquitous teacher and the mobile phone – a part of the human soul. Every emotion has become a smiley – you don’t even have to feel fully; just choose one from the list.
The cost of this is going to be enormous. What goes out, returns. Most of us will not be allowed to even die properly. Life will be extended somehow every time you fall sick. What if your life savings go to the hospitals? Every chronic disease will be treated up to 100 years or more, further adding up the treatment of the side effects of the medicines. Our minds seem to be hacked and our bodies are commoditized, and the worse part of it is that we seem to be fine with this.
So, we really need to take a pause. Let us switch off the TV and mobile phones one evening and cook together, sit together and eat together with the entire family, and make everyone speak for 10 minutes – tell a joke, a story, recite a poem, sing a song or narrate an experience. Let us have just one session to know what is going on in the lives of our loved ones.
We came into this world through our parents. They did the best for us in their conditions. We also did what we could to raise our children well. The problem is the increasing loss of control. Our children are losing control over the way they raise their children. Invisible forces are raising herds, folks, zombies, little consumption machines, whose preferences are being defined like ice-cream flavors, so that things are mass-produced and sold online. The education that is being sold to our children will neither help them get jobs, nor make them good citizens, nor even make them smart. The healthcare that is being sold to us is to extend our life somehow so that we remain customers of pharmacy and diagnostic labs and not to make us healthy.
So what can one do? Let us inculcate some basics. Ensure that you sleep for eight hours every day, come what may. There should not be any electronic gadget in your bedroom. Eat only the food for which you can see the starting point of the supply chain. Go for alternative medicine for treating chronic diseases. Live where the five things told by my Chinese friend are available within walking distance. Spend time with your family and meet your friends in person and not through social media. Look more into the mirror on your wall and not into the dark mirror of your computer, TV or mobile phone. Your life is your biggest asset. Your soul is your real identity. Serve your soul and the world around you will change for good.
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Prof Tiwari, this article you have written is thought provoking worth reflecting seriously. The question where have we lost track? Needs a very sincere articulation to return us to the right path of humanity that will sustain future generations. The discussion on what should be done: Let us inculcate these basics:
1. Ensure that you sleep for eight hours every day, come what may.
2. There should not be any electronic gadget in your bedroom.
3. Eat only the food for which you can see the starting point of the supply chain.
4. Go for alternative medicine for treating chronic diseases.
5. Live where the five things told by my Chinese friend are available within walking distance.
6. Spend time with your family and meet your friends in person and not through social media.
Your life is your biggest asset. May we live these facts not only for our own good but for the best good of our offsprings and our Nations
Technology is on the minds of many policy-makers today. Perhaps Europe is among the thought leaders followed by the United States. The policy-makers are worried that big tech companies may collect too much data, violate privacy, and engage in anticompetitive behaviors. There are also concerns about how technology captivates our attention and manipulates our minds. On the flip side, however, are all the things that are able to do because of technology. Technology is, perhaps, concerning because it touches so many aspects of our lives and fundamentally changes the way we interact. It is true that one has to set boundaries and be mindful not to be overpowered by the “attention merchants,” but think of all the benefits and welfare that technology has created. Also, didn’t generations before us have similar concerns about the radio and TV and somehow we all turned out to be okay?
Prof. Tiwari is such a versatile writer. Technology has really taken us over and we do behave as if possessed by a force which can drive us the way it wants. And it is being done. I recently met a professor of big data in USA and simply told me ” you will be scared to know about how much we know about you and how we can and do control you”. We are being driven to buy things they want even vote for people whom they want.’Back to basics’ seems the way as suggested by Prof. Tiwari. Just disengage yourself from this sinister force on a daily basis for few hours. Thanks Prof. Tiwari!
A typical day for a family was very different from today. With the advent of smartphones came apps which have become integral part of lives. Hacking our lives or changing the world, apps have come to sophisticate and automate our living styles. Doing away with all the apps isn’t going to work since anybody will opt for something to ease their daily grind. For instance, WhatsApp helps us connect with people, near and far and sometimes a large network of people in groups we wouldn’t have connected to otherwise, not to mention the app based transportation services that saves us time, energy and even reduce our ecological footprint. The good old days aren’t gone forever if we have the mind to retrace them. It’s not a mammoth task to keep away anything that interrupts our ability to connect with people in a real world if at all we want to connect. But sadly, manners and courtesies are yet to catch up with technology. Awaiting social norms to naturally evolve will not help. It has to begin somewhere and home is the best place. A mutual understanding in families of the appropriate use of new technologies and gadgets in our lives will go a long way in replacing smart touch to a personal touch. Let us all be seen and heard to be felt and belonged in the real sense. Rightly said, we ought to pause, to think of ways we can infuse a personal touch to all product-centric solutions.
How beautifully have you presented your yearning to go back to good old days! Living out the values we acquired growing up might help generations and may be passed on as well. Hope is a good thing.
Prof Tiwari jee, your this blog is the timely reminder to take a pause, think and act: are we misutilizing the gift of industrialized world? Family is the backbone of the society and the nation and this being silently attacked by friendly foes. let’s be aware of it. Lets the societal fabric be well woven with different shades of its skilled member yarn.
Indeed Prof. Tiwari, the harmful impacts on society that technology has brought on has been abrupt and unanticipated. I first realized this some years ago when visiting a McDonald’s. Many teenagers are gathered together – but rather than loud chatter between them, as was the case before, they were all silent, interacting with the real and virtual world on their phones – seeking the instant gratification of likes on snapchat and other social media. Many of the executives at Facebook, Twitter and other tech companies have expressed regret for the addictive and harmful social media sites they helped create with the related problems. Hopefully they can now turn their energy into helping solve some of the problems. It won’t be easy. We must all realize the need to address the problems and seek guidance in prayer.
Sir, your observation “First, we degraded our poor people. The rich have coolly withdrawn from social welfare. No more charitable colleges, hospitals and hostels have been set up off late,” is most accurate. Income inequality is rising making rich people people that they actually do not belong to a common world. They live aloof from rest of the people in their “mental gated community”. They are going to have a terrible next generation because their children grown up in air conditioned homes and elite schools will be unable to deal with the real world, their systems will crash. It is indeed important to stay connected with the people, especially the poor ones, and interact with them with compassion. Every religion has taught that and yet it has been forgotten.
Sir, What you have written, is bitter truth of society. Unfortunately this trend is upward to look as modern. What our ancestors done in the past is considered by us as primitive whereas modern people are mad to follow western culture. But western people are searching for our old culture.
In today’s world people have become business minded even we are looking for pros and cons in relationship. Poors are walking miles to get a meal whereas rich are walking to digest it. Commercialisation of education is affecting the most to the society. Educations system are mostly exam oriented. Students are first calculating the result and then only looking at the syllabus so is education institution.
Sir, Political rhetoric, national jingoism and tribalism often hide and obfuscate these issues; thanks for bringing the problems, opportunities and solutions that should count to the fore. Practical advice counters the negative prelude. Your prescription on stopping our minds from being hacked is simple, doable, yet profound.
It is big business and money everywhere. No value for human effort, skill or a personal touch. We are driven by the advertisements and what our neighbours do. The other alternatives are being slowly killed. It is time we woke up and honour the old values and practices.
One does not require a movement for this. If each and every one of us cotributes by refusing to take part in the so called ‘change’, we can definitely prosper – after all prosperity is not money- it is the culture and human values
Wow.. As always with your simple language but profound message it triggers deep thinking. Especially loved these lines – “Spend time with your family and meet your friends in person and not through social media. Look more into the mirror on your wall and not into the dark mirror of your computer, TV or mobile phone. Your life is your biggest asset. Your soul is your real identity. Serve your soul and the world around you will change for good.”
Just in a generation, the change is so visible. May scholars like you with articles like these serve as guiding light for the society to understand the pros and cons of modern lifestyles and help people learn to live a “truly happy life” not the one “presented happy” on social media while burning inside with unwarranted wants, undue competitions and haunting loneliness..
Sir, inspired by your words, “sit together and eat together with the entire family, and make everyone speak for 10 minutes – tell a joke, a story, recite a poem, sing a song or narrate an experience,” my family enjoyed a wonderful evening. The time we spend online is dangerously excursive. It must be restricted and must never be used for fun and entertainment. The Blue Light radiation from TV, phones and computer screen (shortest wavelength and highest energy) is truly harming to neurotransmitter balance mechanism. It affects sleep quality, which in turn affect the psychological health. Thank you fora very timely and important article.
Beautiful summary of where the society stands today ! we are just by standers, unfortunately as we all have either lost faith in ourselves or are now joining the party either willingly or otherwise.everything in all walks of life has changed and we don’t question anything and blindly join the flow.It is still up to us, to only selectively join the new system and opt our of all tricky and dangerous path. As rightly advised by Tiwariji in the concluding paragraph, let us follow these few steps and we can still be mostly immune from the side effects of all these. Take a social Media fasting at least for a few hours per day and communicate in person or at least over a phone to a real person/friend/Family member. Even this much will make big difference
So rightly mentioned in the article, almost every trade is being hacked by middlemen (there’s a very derogatory word for most of them in Hindi, which actually defines them better), who have reduced commerce to thievery in nearly every sphere. And its thanks to their type, that the supply chain is inflated, where everyone wants their own pound of flesh at the cost of the actual producer and the eventual buyer. Thus, we have exorbitant prices for goods or produce, leading to a situation where everything is reduced to a mere commodity with money being the sole motive of the entire trade. This has led to such a mechanized way of doing business, and like rightly observed in the blog, the people to people connectivity is gradually disappearing, and keeps getting more pronounced in the age of online purchasing. It’s plain dehumanized business. Craft!!!…what’s that???
If we look at history, even as recent as about 200 years back, most of the trade was by way of barter, and bartering helped forge relations and a one on one connect. And what’s more, there was a general sense of equity. Corruption was negligible, almost absent. The moment cash came in, the game changed, now we have a quantum that can be hoarded, stacked and more importantly has wide spread value. This led to increased greed and the subsequent inequity which led to the creation of the haves and the have nots.
Mark Boyle, the “Moneyless” man, says “money… creates a kind of disconnection between us and our actions”, further he adds, “In current society, your security is cash, and that has huge repercussions. But when you take that out of the equation, you have to have relationships with people and you have to have relationships with the environment to survive.” The present situation is directed towards creating more consumers, with the media flashing ads, who simply influence people to want more. And that is why it is so very important, when you mention the need to return to the basics.
Seriously, this is a very relevant article with some deeply pertinent observations. What’s more, the article just doesn’t highlight the present day malaise confronting people, but also provides a potential trajectory for a remedial solution, exemplified especially in the last line of the last para : “Your life is your biggest asset. Your soul is your real identity. Serve your soul and the world around you will change for good. ” Such a powerful tool to live by.
Thanks sirji for once again treating us with such a wonderful fare…Jai Swaminarayan !!!!
Pranam Sir, Thank you for the post. The lost track will have to be retraced. I see that the solution and the answer lies in the principles of the Gita. The guidance of the ancients will have to be made available in a language that the fragmented modern generation can use to integrate into their every day lives. The water will have to be brought to the horse and the horse will have to be made to feel the thirst to gulp it. I am certain the sun’s light will fall upon the generation in darkness and summon a new dawn for the world, Regards and Respect.
Sir, You narrated the common features of happening around us. This situation is created by us. We can’t blame another for our own dereliction. You agree Beijing is a good city. It may be right, if so the people of Beijing deserve such amenities. You are correct Sir, we need to change our mind set on physical and spiritual life. Our minds should not be hacked by someone. Mind is a portion of a human that allows and enables him to be aware of the world and experiences of action. Mind is the set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, imagination, perception, thinking, judgement, language and memory. All these qualities are commonly known as intellect. Intellect is the true quality of a human. Our long tradition of inquiries in religion and other cognitive science has searched to answer the questions what is mind? and what are its characteristics? Now also it is an unending topics. The famous Psychologist defined three factors that are id, ego and super-ego which drive our mental activities. These three factors will define the mental life of a person. So we should inculcate good habits to lead an amicable social life. Thank you, God bless.
Sir, your observation about spending time with family together is most important. I cherish the time my parents gave me in my childhood. They made me experience the entire spectrum of human emotions and participated in my little activities. Many of us are not doing it with our children. I shared your article with my wife, and we spent a wonderful time together with our son. Happy Makar Sankranti Sir !!!
Sir, I think, everything has its pros & cons. I do agree that supply chain has been changed but in my view it is improved with time. It is not affecting only food industry but all consumables. It has given an opportunity to us to choose wisely. Because of the improved supply chain we are getting quality products at cheapest cost than ever before. Middle mans have been removed. What we need here is to improve our lifestyle and follow the inherited value system. The use of technology will be going to help us a lot in future if we use it in a proper way otherwise will be fatal, no doubt. What we need most is a mentor like you as guide in our life, rest of the thing will be moving as per God’s will, actually we can’t do much other than to become an important tool in the hand of God as the purpose of our existence in this world. Regards.
A very timely article Sir. Skills have taken a serious hit. More and more people are turning spectators, advisors, counsellors, and commentators instead of doers. I meet some people who suffer from ‘outsourcing’ disease – whatever is the task, give it someone for doing. Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam is indeed the secret of living a purposeful life. Skill India was a good programme but unfortunately not taken in the right spirit. Hardly 20% people skilled could get jobs. Best defence from being hacked in to unhealthy lifestyles and behaviours is to be skilful in one activity that you love, such as flying kites, for example.
Sir, Supply chains have indeed become very long and is difficult to see from where they are starting. And this is directly affecting people’s health, especially people in their 20s and 30s. Good habits of food and sleep, family-oriented living is the best anti-dote of keeping mind safe from hacking, and addictions (smoking, alcohol, etc.) and long periods online invite hacking.